Does "itself" mean something here?

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Reflexive pronouns that end in -self or -selves refer back to and emphasise the subject of the sentence. A synonym could be "by itself" or "alone" or "only". So here, the speaker wants to show that Infarm, and only Infarm, nothing else, saw a huge growth in 2020: Ex: My teacher herself met the President (My teacher *emphasis*, no other teacher, met the president). Ex: LingoTalk itself has welcomed 50% more students in the last month (LingoTalk, and not RedKiwi or any other platform, has welcomed 50% more students).

How do native speakers use this expression?

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Popular Q&As

04/19

1
What does "dude" mean here? Can I use it to older people?
"Dude" is a slang term for a man or a guy. It is very informal and mostly just used between friends. While it is mostly used to refer to guys, sometimes people call their female friends "dude", depending on how close they are with them. The word "dude" is very informal, so it is not a word that would be very appropriate to use to refer to older people with. "Dude" is mostly used among young people of the same age group, and especially between close friends. Ex: Hey dude, what's up?

2
What does "down" mean here?
"Down" in this case goes with the phrase "deep down", which is used to refer to a truth that someone knows but pretends as though they don't know or hides it from themselves or others. "Deep down" expresses thoughts which are hidden inside someone, as though they are stuck deep down inside them. Ex: Deep down I knew she was a liar but I didn't want to believe it. Ex: He doesn't show that I know that he loves her but he cares about her deep down.

3
It is common to use present progressive on the news?
Indeed it is! It is very common to use the present progressive tense in the news. The news often reports events as if they are currently happening, even if they happened in the past. You may also notice that words are commonly omitted from the news, such as filler words like articles and linking verbs. This makes the sentences shorter and easier for the viewers to digest the information given to them.

4
Whenever I watch classic cartoons, I've often seen the foolish characters are often compared as "donkeys". Why would that be?
There is a cultural stereotype that donkeys are stupid and stubborn. This actually stems from a classic behavioral characteristic of donkeys, which is their strong sense of danger self-preservation. If they are unsure of a situation, they will stop and prevent themselves from going further, which is where the image of being stubborn comes from. Additionally, donkeys are descended from the African wild ass, which is related to the word "jackass" (slang word meaning a "stupid person").

5
What does "That" at the beginning of the sentence mean? I think this sentence would be fine without "That".
This is a continuation of the previous statement. You'll notice that he says, "moving in with a bunch of divorced guys means that I've given up hope. That my marriage to Lorna is over." He's chosen to start his sentence with "that" to reflect that it is adding to his previous statement, and this has the added effect of avoiding the repetition of "moving in with a bunch of divorced guys means..." Ex: It means that you've done well this time. [It means] That you've made everyone proud. Ex: I think the lack of customers means that the store will have to close. And that we've all lost our jobs.

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